Bringing people together?

When I first came on board as freenode staff I had no idea what a incredible experience I was in for.

Over the past few years I've gotten to know some amazing people, both online and in person, become involved with some exciting projects, learned a lot about cool new stuff.. and it's all thanks to the community surrounding the network.

Here I am now, starting to find my confidence and getting comfortable in my role as Head of Staff for freenode, and as a director for the PDPC.

I am psyched about the fact that the network continues to grow, we've just hit 36,000 users a few weeks back. I'm excited and geared about new projects we're taking on like FOSSCON, the Free and Open Source Software Conference we are arranging in San Diego later this year.

I am proud to be working with such an amazing team of volunteers, the entire freenode staff is made up from people who share a drive and passion.

"If freenode didn't exist, someone would have to invent it. That's how you know that it's not only an essential idea, but something you can't imagine not being there." Those were the words used by a gentleman I met this weekend at Southern California Linux Expo, and it filled me with this feeling of warmth.

We matter, we matter to the projects that use us. Alex Ionescu of ReactOS went as far as to thank freenode for playing such a large part in the success of the ReactOS project, stating that without freenode the project wouldn't exist now.

That feels nice, having people come up and say "We appreciate what you do," people thanking us for the time we put down working on this. And more so, it encourages us to continue working on making improvements and offering a even better service. freenode may not have the ambition to be "the best network IN the world". But we do strive to become "the best network FOR the community."

freenode is a value-based network, driven by a curiosity to find and develop new strategies for communicating, learning and collaborating.

We realize that the times we live in demand creative and innovative thinkers and actors with insight, courage and determination. And I believe that these are exactly the sort of people we have on freenode, both my staff and many of the people involved in the wider community. We aim to provide other projects with a safe space for creative thinking and discussion, a communication platform where you can collaborate and turn small ideas into big explosions.

We are about bringing people together!

I am going to blog soon about some of the changes that are happening with the network and how we communicate with and look for feedback from our users. I am going to let myself bare a bit and tell you how the last few months, following Rob "lilo" Levin's death has affected us, and how it has changed us.

But for now I am going to simply thank you for using freenode, for helping us make this into what it is, wish you a happy Valentines Day and leave you with a few wise words by my friend Albert.

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us "universe", a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty... We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive." -- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)